Duke basketball schedule released

Both UNC games on weekend for first time in 29 years

USA Today

Duke’s ACC basketball schedule was released on Thursday night, along with the rest of the conference’s slate.

The league will play a 20-game conference schedule for the first time in history, and Duke opens in early December, with an opening game at Virginia Tech on December 6. It’s the fourth time in five years that Duke has opened conference play on the road.

Duke plays a second ACC game before the new year, with a December 31 home game against Boston College.

Duke has home-and-home games against Boston College, Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.

It’s the first time Duke has had two regular-season games against NC State since 2015-16.

Duke has home games only against Louisville, Pitt, Florida State and Notre Dame.

The Blue Devils have road games only against Georgia Tech, Clemson, Syracuse and national champion Virginia.

For the first time since Duke’s first national championship year of 1990-91, the annual rivalry series against UNC features two weekend game. Traditionally, the first game of the series has been a midweek game, but this year, both take place on Saturday—February 8 in Chapel Hill and March 7 at Cameron Indoor.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski and many other ACC coaches have bemoaned the tough two-day turnaround—playing on ESPN’s Big Monday after a Saturday game.

Duke has two of them this season, and both are going to be tough tests.

On February 10, Duke hosts Florida State on Big Monday, two days after the UNC game—a game that ends a three-game road trip for the Blue Devils: at Syracuse on February 1, at Boston College on February 4 and at Carolina on February 8.

On March 2, Duke hosts NC State, two days after its trip to Virginia.

Duke’s first two conference games, and five overall, will be on the ACC Network, with the potential for six others to appear on the network.

Duke plays eight games against teams who made the NCAA tournament last year on its ACC schedule and 11 NCAA teams overall.